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Handchurn real food icecream

Earlier this year when Molly was producing lots of cream, I experimented with making real food ice cream in a borrowed ice cream machine. I tried a few difference recipes and I had a lot of fun figuring out how to make ice cream from simple ingredients. I enjoyed it so much I decided to buy my own ice cream machine. When I was looking on ebay I came across a hand-churn machine and I really liked the idea of turning it by hand, the machine was relatively cheap, so I decided to give it a try.

The ice cream machines all use a similar design. They have a metal bowl filled with a fluid that freezes at lower than 0degC, so that when you put it in the freezer, it gets down to freezer temperature (about -7degC). You then put that bowl in the machine, pour in your ingredients and a blade scrapes the frozen mixture off the side of the bowl. In the electric machine, a motor turns the bowl, and the blade is stationary. In the hand-turn machine, the bowl remains still and the blade is turned by hand.

The two things I didn't like about the electric ice cream machine was the noise (you couldn't hear the TV over it) and the lack of control over the speed. It only turned at one speed (surprisingly slow) and in one direction. The hand-turn machine is virtually silent and the turning speed can be varied. At first you can turn the handle slowly, and only every couple of minutes, you can also turn it back the other way if the mixture is accumulating on the sides of the bowl. As the mixtures starts to thicken, you can turn the blade faster and I think this incorporates more air into the mixture and gives a better texture.

When you finish churning the ice cream, its not quite ready to eat (although I don't mind it runny), you need to pour it out into a bread tin and put it in the freezer for a few hours to solidify, but it will keep the softer crystals as turning the ice cream has broken up the ice crystals.

Comments

The small hand ice cream maker is fantastic! The only manual ones I'm familiar with are the huge ones. We used to have one but it got lost along the way. I bought a 2 quart electric ice cream maker this year. It is noisy, that's true, but the size is perfect for just the two of us. I like the freeze first bowls, because it means I don't have to use salt and ice. Isn't it fun experimenting with recipes?

Yum! You've inspired me to get my machine out of the cupboard again. A hand churn machine sounds great. We received our ice cream churner as a wedding present years ago, and it's lots of fun to dust it off every summer when there is so much fruit in abundance. Great activity to do with kids too.

You might like a great recipe I blogged years ago for spiced banana ice cream at bit.ly/1gqmbdu

I looooove making ice cream! You get to make such crazy flavour combinations. I've done a black pepper one before which is amazing. That hand churn looks really cool. I use an electric one which works much better now that I store the bowl in the chest freezer and it gets a lot colder.

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Farmer Liz

Liz lives on eight acres in south east Queensland, Australia, with her husband Peter and dogs Taz and Gus. They have a passion for small-scale organic farming and producing and eating real food. They keep chickens, beef steers, two jersey cows and a big vegetable garden. Liz writes a blog about their farm to both inspire and help others who are interested in self-sufficiency, sustainability and permaculture.

In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. I appreciate the support you have shown my blog and will only recommend products that I use or books that I have read and think are worth recommending to you.